Gary Lineker has questioned the foreign secretary who urged members of the LGBTQ+ community visiting Qatar for the football World Cup to be ‘respectful’ to the host country.
The football event will kick off in the Middle Eastern nation on November 20 and will see 32 teams competing for the trophy, including England.
However, the decision to host this year’s World Cup in Qatar has received immense criticism with human rights groups scrutinising the treatment of local workers and the country’s criminalisation of same-sex marriage.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has since come under fire for advising LGBTQ+ football fans to show ‘a little bit of flex and compromise’ and to ‘respect the culture’ of Qatar while vising for the sporting event.
Match of the Day host Lineker retweeted a post about Mr Cleverly’s comments and wrote: ‘Whatever you do, don’t do anything Gay. Is that the message?’
When one of Linker’s followers commented: ‘The message is to respect Gary.. is it that hard to understand what’s wrong with ppl here,’ the former footballer replied: ‘By doing what?’
Lineker has already vocalised his feelings about Qatar hosting the World Cup, after recently saying it would provide the perfect opportunity for a gay footballer to come out.
‘It would be great if one or two of them came out during the World Cup. It would be amazing,’ he told The Mirror.
‘I know for a fact that some have been very close and contemplated it. There’s a couple I know, but obviously it’s not for me to say who they are.’
Earlier this month, Lineker was found to have breached the BBC’s impartiality rules with a tweet about former Prime Minister Liz Truss and the Conservative Party.
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